The All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) demanded that the central government should set up the seventh pay commission. The government should allot Rs 50,000 crore over the next five years to revive the ailing railways. This was among the 38 emands put forth by the AIRF. The AIRF also demanded that over 2.5 lakh posts under various categories in Indian Railways should be filled up.

This was announced by the AIRF general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra while addressing a conference in connection with the 88th annual general conference of AIRF. He said that the basic pay of the government employees should be increased by a minimum of 50% in the seventh pay commission. He also slammed the Union finance ministry for delaying the funds being granted to the railways and said several demands were accepted by the railway board, but have been kept pending by the finance ministry. Mishra also warned the government that if it fails to meet the demands of the railway men, then they would resort to a strike.

East Coast Railway Shramik Union general secretary Ch Gandhi said AIRF wanted sanction of additional posts commensurate with increase in number of trains and workload, removal of anomalies of sixth central pay commission, a stop to outsourcing of perennial nature jobs, limiting of duty hours to a maximum of seven hours a day and increase in rate of special duty allowance by 25 %.